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Chicken or the egg
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<p>The chicken or the egg <a href="/facts/Causality/Swh496X7">causality</a> <a href="/facts/Dilemma/6X707poK">dilemma</a> is commonly stated as the question, "which came first: the <a href="/facts/Chicken/RD2eTd83">chicken</a> or the <a href="/facts/Egg_(biology)/KyMSx9v4">egg</a>?" The dilemma stems from the observation that all chickens hatch from eggs and all chicken eggs are laid by chickens. "Chicken-and-egg" is a metaphoric adjective describing situations where it is not clear which of two events should be considered the <i>cause</i> and which should be considered the <i>effect</i>, to express a scenario of <a href="/facts/Infinite_regress/Y3rk8wQe">infinite regress</a>, or to express the difficulty of sequencing actions where each seems to depend on others being done first. <a href="/facts/Plutarch/p3bywktN">Plutarch</a> posed the question as a philosophical matter in his essay "<a href="/facts/Moralia/DDBlWbS1">The Symposiacs</a>", written in the 1st century CE. </p>